Kulintangan sa Silid-Aralan: Indigenous Philippine Music in Formal Secondary Education

Abstract

This ethnographic exploratory study investigates the issues confronting school administrators and teachers in integrating the Maguindanao kulintang into the music curriculum in three (3) secondary schools with Special Program in the Arts (SPA) in Sultan Kudarat. It begins with the existing contextualization, localization, and indigenization practices as mandated by the National Cultural Heritage Law of 2009 and its succeeding amendment—in teaching the Maguindanao kulintang. A survey of scholarship on teaching indigenous music reveals that world music pedagogy, integration through national and institutional policies, and place-centered education as among the dominant strategies in teaching and learning how to play the kulintang. Key informant interviews with school administrators and teachers alongside classroom observations and document analysis were used to understand the Maguindanao kulintang as part of the teaching-learning process. Institutional support, funding, instrument availability, teachers’ training, and the preference for Western music are the challenges encountered by the schools. This study proposes the inclusion of Maguindanao kulintang in formal secondary education to pave the way for proper contextualization, localization, and indigenization of traditional music in the classroom.